A Mandatory Listen

A Mandatory Listen – Nechumi Yaffe: An insider’s dire prognosis for the Haredi world – and its cure

In the fourth episode of our new podcast series, the ultra-Orthodox female prof running for Knesset discusses frankly the problems facing the community, and why she is swimming upstream

With:

Amanda Borschel-Dan
Deputy Editor Amanda Borschel-Dan is the host of The Times of Israel’s Daily Briefing, What Matters Now and The Reel Schmooze podcasts, and heads up The Times of Israel’s features.
Nechumi Yaffe
Dr. Nechumi Malovicki-Yaffe is a tenured senior lecturer at the School of Public Policy at Tel Aviv University and co-director of the Haredi Research Group at UCLA. She began her professional life in the Bais Yaakov system, and for more than a decade she taught history in seminaries in Jerusalem, served as an educational consultant in the Charedi school system, sat on the committee that wrote the national history exams, and wrote textbooks and teaching guides. She holds a bachelor’s degree in the humanities and two master’s degrees, one with a thesis on the integration of Charedim into Israeli society. She completed her doctorate at the Swiss Center for Conflict Research at Hebrew Uniersity, with a dissertation on poverty and identity in Haredi society. From there she went on to a postdoctoral fellowship at Princeton, and taught at Rutgers University and at Yale’s summer school. Since 2019 she has been a faculty member at Tel Aviv University.

Welcome to “A Mandatory Listen,” a new weekly podcast in which The Times of Israel deputy editor Amanda Borschel-Dan asks the big questions facing Israel and the Jewish people.

For this fourth episode in the new series, we speak with Prof. Nechumi Yaffe, an ultra-Orthodox woman running for Knesset for the Charedi Public Party (HaTzibur HaCharedi).

WATCH the full episode here:

A faculty member at Tel Aviv University since 2019, Yaffe is currently a tenured senior lecturer at the School of Public Policy and co-director of the Haredi Research Group at UCLA.

More from A Mandatory Listen

Among other fields of interest, Yaffe delves into the issues of poverty and identity in Haredi society.

We hear how the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught on southern Israel made Yaffe rethink the ideas of civil obligations and rights. While she believes that youths who are not fit for yeshiva can — and should — be conscripted into the IDF, she is deeply concerned with allowing the ultra-Orthodox community to remain strictly observant.

How can a delicate balance between religious observance and national burden be forged? Only through education, says Yaffe.

Over time, she relates, her friends and neighbors in the ultra-Orthodox world stopped accusing her of airing their dirty laundry in the secular public and began understanding the dire situation their community is in.

But will this increased awareness lead to a gain in the polls? Perhaps through the Haredi world’s overlooked weapon — women.

A Mandatory Listen podcast episodes are available for download on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, or wherever you get your podcasts. This episode was produced by Yitzchak Ledee.

Check out last week’s episode:

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A Mandatory Listen – Nechumi Yaffe: An insider’s dire prognosis for the Haredi world – and its cure

In the fourth episode of our new podcast series, the ultra-Orthodox female prof running for Knesset discusses frankly the problems facing the community, and why she is swimming upstream

WATCH the full episode here:

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Check out last week’s episode: